Femtosecond laser micromachining

Abstract

Femtosecond laser is a laser that can emit ultrashort laser pulse with extremely high peak power. Its ultrashort duration allows it to have negligible thermal effects when focused onto the material and enable the laser to be used in wide range of material. This property allows femtosecond laser to be used in various industry.

Femtosecond laser micromachining have become a more and more important method for fabricating optical fibers. This is because micrometer scale patterns must be inscribed into the optical fibre in order to alter the light propagation property of the optical fibre. However, the diameter of the optical fibre is as small as the diameter of a human hair. Therefore, it is difficult and complicated to process optical fibers in microscopic scales using conventional laser, as conventional laser may easily damage the core of the optical fibre. Therefore, femtosecond laser is used to overcome the above challenge.

This project investigated the use of the femtosecond laser micromachining to create micrometer-scale patterns on the surface of an optical fibre, as well as characterize the factor affecting the feature created from the femtosecond laser micromachining process.